Hi there, I'm new to this but trying like hell to figure the basics of this out, (as I did a while back but failed, then went off and left it.) and was wondering if this is why there's 11 dimensions :

1. Height
2. Width
3. Depth
4. Time

Then we move onto the stuff that causes many of us problems, but after reading up for a while I'm hoping (!) that I at least know why there's 11. Are these the extra 7?

5. Kaluza–Klein combination of gravitation and electromagnetism - 5th dimension.

6-10. 5 different string theories that all appear to be correct at the same time, leading to :
11. M-Theory, which says that the 5 string theories are all correct and part of the same thing, which adds 6 dimensions onto the other 5.

I'm sure that'll be wrong, but I at least feel closer to working out how it's arrived at....the main confusing thing is : those 5 string theories from 6-10 are all supposed to be detecting 10 dimensions aren't they? So I'm sure I'm wrong, but if any of you could try and break it down like that, but with the correct info I'd be really grateful, because it's driving me half mad. I don't want to fail at grasping the very basics of the idea and then leaving it again either, then going off to learn about other things instead, because I'll only come back at somepoint in the future and get just as wound up again with the whole thing.

2nd post added to make it easier to merge if need be :

Nobody? Ok, I just thought about it again a bit and I'm realising that I probably got it wrong with the 5 string theories. (surprise, surprise...) The 5 all say that there's 10 dimensions, but they're not numbers 5-10 like I stupidly thought, they're just 5 theories that add 5 onto the other 5, or 6 onto the 4 of length, width, depth and time. Then M-Theory comes along and says that they're all right, but only when you look at it from this 11th dimension, which as far as I can gather, can view the other 10 from different.....angles so to speak, and is something on a whole other level.

Is that closer? But then that leaves me not knowing what the hell the other 5 are after the 4 and 5th that I listed earlier....will have to read up more.

Un-unifyed standard model can be formulated with 7 kaluza klein dimensions, in the same way that electromagnetism can be done with just one KK dimension.

Problem is, they need unification and chirality, so the 7 dimensions are not used in most models.

First dimension is time.

the Second dimension is Duration. t -> t+1

click click ckick is a frequency?

t+1 is the dimension of length. A dot that is on, as time recedes away. To see the two dimension line ( on ((duration)) + time ), You have to add a third dimension. an offset from the straight-on view of the dot + duration in time. Call it x or y, but the offset now gives us a nice two dimensional graph paper clicking away from us at the speed of click click click. ( x,y,t,)
To add another dimension we need to add another offset. Easy enough. Two eyes set about z apart. ( x,y,z,t,). Our normal perception.

What about including the changes of Yaw, Pitch, Roll, Acceleration, ( all requiring a delta of one or more of the basic four dimensions) and try to put them into the map?

Nobody? Ok, I just thought about it again a bit and I'm realising that I probably got it wrong with the 5 string theories. (surprise, surprise...) The 5 all say that there's 10 dimensions, but they're not numbers 5-10 like I stupidly thought, they're just 5 theories that add 5 onto the other 5, or 6 onto the 4 of length, width, depth and time. Then M-Theory comes along and says that they're all right, but only when you look at it from this 11th dimension, which as far as I can gather, can view the other 10 from different.....angles so to speak, and is something on a whole other level.

Is that closer? But then that leaves me not knowing what the hell the other 5 are after the 4 and 5th that I listed earlier....will have to read up more.

Also : sorry for making this thread, I've quite clearly got it wrong, so maybe it should be merged with the other one that's on this page. (I just merged these two posts aswell, so this can be deleted, and you can just shift the starter onto the other thread.)

I've been told here that all the extra dimensions of string theory are spatial ones. It is probably not useful to think of time as the fourth dimension.

Consider the 'first three': height width depth. Does it matter if you list them as width, height, depth? or any other recombination? It seems there is no preferred order, and trying to list a heirarchy of dimensions is not useful.

I hope this helps.